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Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Among the Boston restaurant that my LA friends recommended to me was Ken Oringer and Jamie Bissonnette's Coppa. Chef Jamie Bissonnette won the James Beard award for Best Chef in the Northeast region this year. I was pretty excited to try this place and it didn't disappoint.

Coppa was smaller and more casual than I had expected; a cozy enoteca in the South End with reasonable prices.

I started with the Sea urchin panino with lonza and mustard seeds

Even though the uni flavor wasn't that strong here, I loved it nonetheless since it worked nicely with the lonza (cured pork tenderloin, also known as lomo) sandwiched between thin, crunchy bread.

This was followed up by the Beef heart pastrami crostini

It did not taste as offal-y or gamy as I had expected, but it was tender and flavorful.Fluke crudo (raw fluke, green gazpacho, yogurt, chili, almonds)

In a typical crudo, you'd have a light dressing drizzled over the fish. Here, the fluke is submerged in a gazpacho that really takes center stage when combined with the yogurt. Even after the fluke was gone, we still couldn't stop drinking the gazpacho.

Sweetbread-nettle stuffed raviolis, ricotta

I could still taste the offal flavor of the sweetbreads, but having been chopped up and mixed with the nettle it is missing the signature texture of sweetbreads. Nonetheless, it was still a wonderful pasta dish.

White pizza with beef tongue and bone marrow

This was the best pizza I've had recently. The thin crust itself was a great crust, with a nice crunch around the edges, but of course it's the toppings that made this stand out. The bone marrow was smoked beforehand, adding more complexity to the dish. The saltiness does get to you towards the end but it's so flavorful it's hard to stop eating.

Warm olive oil cake, strawberries, chantilly cream, urfa peppers

The cake was quite rich, as you can imagine, but cut nicely but the cool cream.

This dinner at Coppa is one of my best meals in Boston thus far (that bone marrow pizza!). The menu does change regularly, so I can't wait to go back and try other dishes. Luckily, Coppa's prices are quite reasonable, making it easier to go back again and again.